Cost of education: Obama plan at war with itself

1:36 PM,
Sep. 12, 2013

Written by

USA TODAY

For decades, universities were in the money. They expanded their administrative staffs, splurged on new buildings, tolerated money-losing sports and indulged professors too busy with their research to be bothered with teaching.

This produced bloated institutions that, while still outstanding in many ways, are dreadfully inefficient and keep raising tuition despite (or perhaps because of) the billions of dollars in federal and state money flowing in each year.

But now the good times appear to be ending, which stands to be good news for anyone in search of high-quality education at a ...